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What are the real problems SMEs are facing?

Series of six videos on Business Channel.tv features Cambridge Judge Director Christoph Loch interviewed on challenges facing small and medium sized enterprises.

Building and growing a small or medium sized enterprise (SME) is the focus of six short online videos produced by the Business Channel.tv that feature interviews with Christoph Loch, Director of Cambridge Judge Business School.

SME for Growth is a dedicated platform for SMEs established by the Business Channel.tv in association with the Confederation of British Industry, the Institute of Directors and the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, among other organisations.

The SME for Growth video series looks at such topics as establishing ambitious growth targets, attracting the right people, innovation, and establishing a credible business plan. The School was invited to be a guest contributor to the series.

In an article accompanying the first of the six videos, the growth challenge faced by SMEs is addressed by Director Christoph Loch; Hanadi Jabado, Executive Director of the Entrepreneurship Centre at Cambridge Judge, and Professor Stelios Kavadias, Academic Director of the Entrepreneurship Centre.

“Often, the lack of funding or access to funding is cited as a root cause for the lack of growth amongst SME companies,” says the article. “We believe the opposite is true. Lack of funding is a symptom, not the cause.”

The problem facing many SMEs is instead an inability to bridge the “information gap” between available capital and companies seeking capital infusion. “The way for SMEs to get more funding is to reduce this opacity and showcase that they have a winning strategy backed up by managerial competence,” the article says.

The video series also includes a segment featuring bank Santander about the “key disciplines” gained by businesses that participate in the Entrepreneurship Centre’s SME Growth Challenge; Santander has been a supporting partner of the programme. These disciplines, important to attracting future funding, include business planning, innovation and ability to take products to market.